During the first 6 months of 2007 I worked as a casual heavy rigid truck driver.
My employer failed to pay the casual award rate.
failed to pay penalty rates for overtime
failed to pay superannuation.
Contacting the Work Place hotline in May and again in July they provided advice on what I should do.
Using the advice given it has produced no results and contrary to the Work Place advertisments seen on TV, it appears they are not interested in individual cases, in fact they are showing to be toothless tigers.
Howards I.R. Laws, although if adhered to in the correct context could be good, they allow for employers to use them to strip employees of basic award entitlements.
It would appear the Work Place Ombudsman does not, or is not committed to protecting employees awards.

The adds are aimed at influencing the 10% who not understanding the intent of workchoices can be changed by fairy tails.
Most understand the adds are in fact just miss information, we pay for in an effort to get workchoices mark three up in this election.
I challenge Joe Hocky to explain why the many months back log of reviewing new AWA,s is in place pre election.

Gypsy. The complaint handling system is there just for show. They are not allowed to get involved in 'individual cases' so they are a waste of time and money. All they do is work to discredit the complainant as people believe that if they had a case the investigatory bodies would have done something. It is only when and if a large group is impacted that they might intervene. As individuals we are worth nothing.

Both State and Federal use the same process of handling and dealing with issues and complaints. None of them protect the individual. WE are not valued as individual citizens despite the fact that we pay taxes in individual amounts.

Gypsy,
the (Qld) ombudsman's office in my experience is merely an expensive joke as is the CMC and the Audit & Review units. I am disappointed that you are not having any joy with IR. My situation has worked out well so-far.
I can see how some workers don't like not getting penalty rates but let's look at the other side. Are they 2 or 3 times more productive to keep in line with penalty rates ?
Just look at the public service where incompetent workers can not be demoted or even sacked because of "unfair dismissal". On the contrary, the more useless they are the more likely they get promoted simply to get rid of them. Do you see that as "fair" to the taxpayer ?
In my case my employment was terminated by a "workers' orientated labor government" department because I reported misuse of public funding. When I mentioned "unfair dismissal" no-one put up their hand for me. On the contrary, I was shafted by the very people who condemm IR and promote the unfair dismissal lie.

I find it appaling that the Howard government is wasted so much of the tax payers money on WorkPlace advertisments, this he his doing to attempt to win votes at the up coming federal election.
I have always been a swinging voter and have taken an interest in what I consider is best for the people of Australia. Howards I.R. Laws and legislation, in most cases, only hurt the workers, surely he can see this so he introduced the workplace ombudsmen, which is proving to be a sham, if WorkPlace investigators were serious they would publicly investigate and prosecute employers who misuse the I.R. laws.

I find it appaling that the Howard government is wasted so much of the tax payers money on WorkPlace advertisments.
Appalling indeed Gypsy,
Due to the appalling fact that there still are so many people who can't accept that we can't go on providing conditions which were earnt by the risk-takers to those who aren't. These are mainly people who are not in private enterprise and have no input of any substance apart from the GST. I would like someone to list positions of the public sector & explain how they contribute to society which can be accepted as indispensable. Police ? how much would they earn if they'd have to rely on individuals paying them. Or health, or defence, or education. They are all argue their importance to society (as long as public funding & good conditions are available). The problem is that the public sector conditions are getting too good in comparison to the private sector whose revenue contribution is the life-blood of the public sector. I hear only too often "we have to pay them (high profile professionals) more or we'll lose them to overseas". Well, say I, lets call their bluff & see how many are in enough demand to make it without the security of the public service.

When I was in management, I was told I could not introduce certain changes because I would get in trouble with the union. I did nevertheless as I deemed the changes to be important and no union caused problems. The simple reason was that before implementing changes I had a meeting with the workers to explain the benefits of the changes.
As such, often problems can be avoided by making sure the workers can understand the benefits of a change.
However, I had also where management refused to honour its commitments towards workers and was robbing the workers, unknown to the workers. So, I did the thing I held best and advised workers of this. They went on strike, when the company had refused my request to back-pay all shortcomings, and finally the company caved in. Evenso I was in management neither the company or the workers took against me, as both understood that I was ultimately responsible to output (production, etc) and while there was a brief strike of a few days, in the overall production was going up because workers recognised I was fair to all.
Unfair dismissal laws came about because of unfair conduct by many employers! That should be kept in mind. Then more and more workers who may have deserved to be sacked for inappropriate conduct then started to misuse the unfair dismissal laws. When I sacked a worker on the spot for indecent and immoral conduct, there was no strike because the workers knew all along that I had promised that if any worker used indecent language or other inappropriate language or conduct they would be sacked on the spot. In fact workers thanked me for providing safety and security to the workplace and getting rid of the bullies in that regard.
The Federal Government used Medicare safety next as an advertisement blitz before the 2004 election as to claim people were entitle to their rights, only to change it after the election and no advertisement then! the same now about WorkChoices (WorkPlaces)!
The-admission-of-25,000-AWA's-having-been-found-illegal underlines it is being abused on a grandscale by employers!